I hate to be the bearer of bad news a second time-around considering I’ve already posted this very same message once before. However, thanks thanks to a generic T-Mobile support page, there’s a new rumor quickly making its way around that the Nexus 4 does in fact have Wi-Fi calling if purchased through T-Mobile. Except, it doesn’t and it’s worrisome that this story is spreading as fast as it is allowing for the possibility that a number of you may buy this device expecting to see a feature that won’t be available. Just in case there’s any lingering doubt, the above screen shot should dispel any beliefs that a Nexus 4 sold in T-Mobile stores will in fact have Wi-Fi calling.

About David Beren

David is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of TmoNews.com. He considers himself a Jedi Knight, capable of leaping tall buildings in a single bound and a connoisseur of fine cell phones. He has been involved in the wireless industry since 2003 and has been known to swap out phones far too many times in any given year. Should you wish to contact him, you can do so: david@tmonews.com.

The new way wifi calling is implemented is baked into the ROM/OS making it difficult if not impossible to pull out and implement in another ROM – it’s also closed source…

Khalints

Which sucks because even though I don’t RELY on wifi calling, my work gets sketchy signal (1 bar at most) and sometimes completely lose connection sometimes without me even knowing.

Wifi calling would have been nice.

Motoki_Mo

There are other ways to get wifi calling. You should be able to use Groove IP or Talkatone + Google Voice. I’ve done that with TMO phones in the past.

The reception can be kind of iffy sometimes so I suppose there’s that, but it’s doable.

stevegavrilles

It’s strange that people would even think this. Nexus devices have NEVER(vzw nexus doesn’t count, those bastards) had any carrier input. So why would it now? Dingbats.

Durandal_1707

Well I can understand it, given that Nexus devices have also NEVER been sold directly by a carrier (other than the VZW Nexus, of course). If the L(ousy) G(arbage) Nexus is being sold by T-Mobile, that would seem to put it in the same class as the VZW GNex, which would imply that carrier input is possible.

Too bad it doesn’t have WiFi Calling, since that’s a bit of a must have for me. Of course, not being made by LG is also a must have, so I guess it doesn’t really matter.

niftydl

You sound like a cranky G2x owner. No need to troll if you do not like the LG brand.

The main difference here is that Verizon forced software modifications done to the stock Google software. T-Mobile is just selling the hardware as-is. Unlike Verizon, I doubt T-Mobile has the same resources or marketing power to have a separate version of the device just for them.

Durandal_1707

If you’d owned a G2x, you’d understand.

If you haven’t owned an LG device yet, you’ll find out.

Andrew Baxendale

LG’s build quality is great. It’s software and software updates that are the problem. Since this is straight from Google it won’t be awful. This phone will be outstanding at its price point.

Durandal_1707

That’s the *exact same thing* that they said about the G2x, and what I believed when I bought it. It was supposed to be stock Android, which was supposed to fix all the LG problems. We all know how that turned out.

And I’m still not convinced that the hardware was innocent, either. The random lockups, even right after a reboot, and also the sharp degradation of battery life were consistent with an overheating processor. The screen, also, suffered from serious backlight bleed issues, and in what has to be one of the weirdest design decisions ever, the camera flash had no cover over it, instead having a wide open hole for dust to go into and get trapped between the camera lens and the lens cover, causing the camera to be pretty much useless unless you opened the case and cleaned it out each time before using it.

Be a guinea pig if you want. I will not buy another LG device. I still can’t believe I dropped $550 on that thing on launch day. If you must have a Nexus, I’d recommend either finding an old GNex somewhere, or waiting for the next one made by someone else.

Andrew Baxendale

Really? Are you still sore about hardware that is over 2 years old now? LG, nowadays, makes some of the nicest screes. One doesn’t complain about screen bleeds with modern LG phones. Battery life on their phones is adequate — dare I say — great. Overheating processors, again, are a thing of the past. Sure there come around from time to time, but not that often. And LG also makes a pretty nice camera, too.

So as it turns out, I won’t be the guinea pig; you already were, for me. So for that, I thank you.

Durandal_1707

Haha, that’s *also* something I thought when the G2x came out – that horrible LG feature phone I’d had way back in the day was a long time ago, things had surely changed since then, look how good the early reviews were! etc. etc. etc. I thought those nagging doubts I had were silly. I should have followed my instinct. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me, fool me three times, I’d have to be insane.

Andrew Baxendale

I understand you have a grude against LG. But the step up from a feature phone to a smartphone was a huge gap to jump. Of course there would be bugs. Now with LG making quality Android handsets (some of which are among the best), there is proof that LG has improved drastically. If you want the new nexus, try it out at T-Mobile first, research it in depth, and you will find (hopefully) that it is another quality Nexus device.

Durandal_1707

I’d rather just wait and get something from someone else if I were in the market for a Nexus. And I’m not, really – the wifi calling feature is too useful out in the sticks (although Cyanogenmod will probably eventually add it since the code’s open source), and my Samsung GS3 is a superlative device, especially compared to what it replaced. The thing runs so flawlessly that I’m willing to overlook waiting a little longer for the latest version of Android.

As for LG, it’s not just the failure of the phone itself that is the problem – it’s the fact that the company never lifted a single finger to fix anything, or help in any way. They just didn’t give a $@#%. And this is something that I doubt has changed terribly much, unless the CEO and board of directors have all turned over in these 1.5 short years.

Durandal_1707

And look at that. I am shocked – shocked – to learn that the Nexus 4 has heat-related issues – apparently, thermal throttling causes it to run much more poorly when it is not running inside a freezer. What a massive surprise.

I picked up 2 LG Optimus L9 devices on Saturday. The hardware is awesome. There is only one issue with soft on both devices. Pressing the Home button to wake the phone when it is in deep sleep does not wake them up most of the time. The button has to be pressed 2 or 3 times. One phone is worse than the other. The power button wakes them every time. Tech support tells me that is the way the phone is and to just use the power button. I think LG should disable the home button wake feature if it doesn’t work instead of telling me I am pressing it wrong. Hopefully it will get resolved in an update. I let T-Mobile know I would like it fixed and they placed a request. Maybe if others do this we can have it fixed.

If I buy this phone, I would use the T-mobile add- Bobsled for wi-fi calling.

squiggleslash

Provides the wrong caller ID and doesn’t handle incoming calls.

squiggleslash

What’s interesting is that the “generic manual” instructions point to the feature being provided using the in-built Android SIP client, which hopefully means they plan to make Wi-fi calling available via that in the near future.

niftydl

This would be epic, although I believe this would only allow for voice routing. The nice thing about the current WiFi-calling implementation is that it also routes SMS and MMS over the same connection.

The Guru

it vanilla Android why would it have carriers apps on it ?isnt that the whole point to having a nexus device …silly if you ask me …

ButcherChop

If they subsidize they might have mods? Unless Google put their foot down. You can still use Groove IP app to make wifi/3g calls over data is what I was told in another blog.

czaplin

I plan to get on Nexus anyway.
If you look for a way to save your minutes, one of the options is Vonage (check Play Store). For now they offer 3000 minutes withing US and Canada. And call quality is much better than GroveIP.

frageelay

Not a deal breaker. I’ve had it and never used it.

guidomus_maximus

Not helped by rumour sites that have confusing wording!
“the above screen shot should prove that a Nexus 4 sold in T-Mobile stores will in fact NOT have Wi-Fi calling.”
I read that last sentence three times before I got the message. (let the grammar police start…)

TMoFan

Aw! I figured the recent rumors going around were false. On my G2 wifi calling is a standalone app but I guess it’s done differently now. Oh well, still not a deal-breaker. I’ll be ordering mine 3AM EST.

archerian

Looks like Tmo edited the support page, now it clearly states Wifi Calling is not supported.

Guags

I use Google voice for WiFi calling via PBXes.org and a SIP client. Once its setup it works for me…but I was already a GVoice user.

Richard Hanooman

Here’s whats going to happen. The S3 will get Jellybean first on T-Mobile and then they will have WiFi calling. Devs will port it over to the Nexus and everything will be golden.

Vlad Cysnyskitika

I’m not expecting the Nexus 4 to have T-Mobile wifi calling capabilities. But how does the screen shot above dispel any myth about that feature. I looked at image 3 times and I don’t get. Maybe instead of making such a vague claim, why don’t you just say how that image accomplishes what you claim?

thepanttherlady

I’m seeing a lack of WiFi capability……

Vlad Cysnyskitika

I stil don’t get how that screen definitively dispels that capability. That screen shot alone is meaningless. If you are suggesting its “proof” bc it literally does not say Wifi calling capability, then by extension it also literally doesn’t say cellular calling or wifi Internet browsing – literally. So by extension are we to assume you can’t make a regular cellular call or surf the Internet bc somehow that screen shot is so important that if a capability is not literally listed on it then it lacks that functionality? Now I know for sure you can make regular calls on the Nexus 4 and that you can surf the web even though its not listed on that screen shot?

Thanks beautiful for attempting to answer my question, but I just don’t get it. That screenshot is not proof of anything. The comments from T-mobile are more definitive.

Duncan

The reason he says it is definitive is because on all Android phones that support wi-fi calling except the G2, the option to turn it on would be in that menu screen specifically. So by being absent it indicates it isn’t a supported feature.

NA

Wifi calling is a separate app on my cliq2, not buried in a menu. This phone won’t have Wifi calling, but the proof is t-mobile saying it won’t, not a screenshot of where the setting would be on most phones.

21stNow

If I showed you a picture of the driver’s side of the car and it was missing the steering wheel, would you say that I didn’t prove that the car wasn’t drivable because I didn’t mention whether or not there were tires on the car? If the steering wheel isn’t there, the car isn’t drivable (at least by me).

If Wi-fi calling isn’t in the Wireless and Networks menu, it isn’t on the phone.

Vlad Cysnyskitika

What kind of stupid comment is this? English must not be your first language because I have no idea of what you just said. Unlike you, Duncan makes a lot of sense. I didn’t realize David writes an Android blog… I thought its focus was more around T-Mobile. As a blackberry user I had no idea why that screen shot was indicative of anything. David should not assume everyone is an Android, let alone menu expert. He should have left this post as I confirmed from T-Mobile and that’s it.
Thanks Duncan for clearing that up in standard normal English, your explanation was satisfactory.

21stNow

So you make ridiculous assertions and then try to attack other posters on an internet forum when you don’t understand what the blog post is about in the first place? That makes you look like a class act. sarcasm

Vlad Cysnyskitika

Ridiculous assertion? This page / post is about a phone and a specific feature – clearly my comprehension skills are up to par. You on the otherhand replied with something having to do with an auto, a steering wheel, and wheels and it sound utterly dense and irrelevant. I would assert you didn’t understand the post or my question, but then again your last sentence in your initial reply is the only thing that made sense and was relevant. I still don’t know wtf you were talking about in your first paragraph. I did not attack any posters, but it would be fair to say perhaps I was a bit harsh with my reply to your reply regarding autos. Sorry if I hurt your feelings. I simply described your initial comment as nonsensical.

It’s a screenshot of the more “menu” in the settings of an ICS+ device. Wifi and Bluetooth have their own individual listings.

98clru

Wifi calling on our 3 g2x’s have been useless since the last update. Used to work great, now total breakup. Been that way for about 2 months now and can’t roll back to old version.

Josue

besides no SD support and no Wi-Fi calling I wonder how they will sell

archerian

they will still sell well internationally..

Josue

that’s a know fact

niftydl

A $600 level device (hardware wise) at $350 with pure Google software and updates. While I personally would like to have a microSD slot, at this price range – I can manage with a USB dongle when I need extra storage.

ButcherChop

Im ready to order mine tomorrow. It’s on. $350 for this piece of hardware is remarkable. My Galaxy Nexus has been great but I’m sending it off to Craigslist come later this week.

arodhr13

supposedly it does have Wi-Fi calling you go into the phone app than Se tup internet calling have to have a new sim from tmobile but supposed to work. and it’s not a setting in the menu you showed off

niftydl

Internet Calling is different from WiFi calling. Internet calling is to allow people to use various Voice Over IP providers with SIP accounts to make VOIP phone calls. WiFi calling emulates regular dialing/messaging/MMS on T-Mobile, but redirects it over WiFi connection instead of cell towers.

Unless T-Mobile is allowing SIP calling now, I don’t see this options useful for most customers.

I don’t think there’s a product out there that has EVERYTHING anyone needs on it when it comes to features. I always find something from software to what a hardware build looks like, that I wont like on a product. There are things I can live with or without. Question is can everyone else pick what’s important to them and what isn’t? Luckily for me I can live without wifi calling and no SDcard. I can also live without a removable battery though I know when it comes down to it, we can get it replaced if need be…by Jove! Lol

JeffreyME

How do you quickly back up contacts, photos, etc. safely without an SDcard? Is there an app that does cloud or computer backups automatically on a regular basis?

niftydl

If you use you Google account, contacts and calendar are automatically synced. There are a number of apps in the play store that support online-based backup. You can schedule to run automatically at intervals or save to local storage and download to your computer with a USB cable. The software usually puts everything into a ZIP file.

MyBackupPro is an example.

JeffreyME

Thanks. I’ll check it out when I get my Nexus 4 next week!

niididdy

I usually use Dropbox which automatically uploads my pics when I take a pic, and keeps a copy on my phone which I eventually delete. Its a one-time setup when you install the Dropbox App. There are others out there that will do something similar. Secondly I use Google Drive a lot, but only for Docs. My contacts are ALWAYS backed up to Google’s server so whenever I switch phones, I just take the SIM Card and put it in another Android phone, setup my account and all my contacts show on my phone automatically. To do this, whenever you add a contact to your Android phone, choose gmail as your contact storage. Even your Apps will automatically restore when you swap phones and sign into your new Android phone using your gmail account. Just make sure the “Back up and reset” settings under your Android phone have “Back up my data” and “Automatic restore” checked (if you have ICS). Hope this helps.

Overland Park

Good tip. I do the same, except my pics go straight to my Pogo drive. I have never added a contact on a phone since. It’s so much easier to do it on Google. Having your pics in the cloud is a nice way to save space on your phone too. i guess I’ll need to use an app for google voice to get around the missing wifi calling feature.

niididdy

Absolutely. I’ve done the Google voice thing for awhile now. It works pretty good. There is a paid voip app in the Google store that also does something similar…it uses the voip portion of a cell tower to connect for voice…ends up being free. I don’t remember the name or have researched it enough to know all the technical aspects of it. . When I find it I’ll post.

mcgraham89

That App sounds interesting. Please do post once you have more info. Thanks.

dp4609

GrooveIP is a popular one

niididdy

Yes That’s the name! GroovIP. Thanks for sharing. That’s a very good one.

Dakota

My apps didn’t when I did that. Some did some didn’t lots of deleted also..all settings had to be redone. Lost all game his cores or open levels..photo albums I created and on and on. Chasing Android phones has been a royal mess when I’ve tried

JeffreyME

It does. Thanks. The one great thing my Blackberry did was back up and sync automatically, every time I plugged it into my computer. Unfortunately, now that is the ONLY great thing it does…

theking_13

The same way its been done since the BEGINNING of Android.

Through your Google account.

Wilma Flintstone

NiiDiddy!!! Whats up man? Haven’t seen you in a while. Probably because I haven’t been here in a while. Lol

Anyway, this Nexus, I’ll have to pass on most likely. It’s just missing a bit too much for my liking. It looks design wise great though but design alone won’t sell a phone for me, it’d help though.

niididdy

WILMA!!! Yeah, it’s been awhile. I haven’t gone too far..been reading and keeping up, but I haven’t been posting any comments till about a week ago. So I am back in that regard lol. Hope you are well!!

I did some “soul searching” and realized that for me, I never really used up storage space…not even on an SD Card on my GSIII or any other Android device I’ve owned. Same with wi-fi calling – hardly used it. For me, its annoying and I hate the icon on my notification bar. I’ve been a HUGE Cloud fan for pretty much everything (not sure if its good or bad..but I live in the Cloud LOL). Plus it’ll be my first Nexus phone…hopefully it only gets better from here on out.

Good to hear from you. I’ll stick around and hope you do too.

John

Why can’t T-Mobile make WiFi Calling an app that can be downloaded and installed on the Nexus 4?

niftydl

In order to emulate regular phone dialing and SMS/MMS sending over WiFi the app has to have custom low system level drivers. These would require modifications to core system services and files on the phone, which Google is unlikely to allow. This is the main reason only T-Mobile branded devices have this feature, it is developed specifically for the carrier.

There is a chance the community will come up with a hack but only time will tell.

jbhotnessmon

AWESOME IT IS THE LG G2X PART 2 I’m definitely gonna get screwed by lg again yayy!!!!

Dakota

Ask your tmo contacts which stores will have it. Told today no store in Atlanta. One store didnt even know what I was talking about

wanderson

Get a life and get the galaxy note 2, simple or don’t work and have enough money?

thepanttherlady

Why is it assumed that because one doesn’t want the Galaxy Note 2 that they don’t have a life, don’t work or don’t have enough $?

Gurl we on the internet it brings out ALL types of idiots that normally hide in fear…so sad poor babies

PiCASSiMO

I applaud your trolling enthusiasm.

Mirad77

Didn’t any of you guys ranting on here about WIFI calling saw what happened to the Veri$on’s Galaxy Nexus? And in your little monkey minds think Google was going to let that happened again to another Nexus phone? I think it’s even better for anyone that want a Nexus 4 not to have any carrier bloats as that would delay updates and more. That would have the phone on the same pace.

mingkee

Why is everybody surprised for that?
The feature of Nexus is free from carrier’s branding.

scase66

No LTE, no removable battery or storage. You would think Google would have learned from watching the response HTC got putting out devices like that? Note to Google: We want those features!!!!!

brazil1214

I like much more the Galax note 2…

od312

I know I’m a bit off topic, but I see a lot of fuss about the nexus line not having micro sd support. I couldn’t imagine the average person needing more than 16gb on a phone. I mean, what’s so difficult about using a dropbox account or even dumping pics and videos on a computer? If you need more than 16gb on a phone on any given day, carry a hard drive.

LOL right people still be like “I’m waiting on a 32 or 64 gb (i.e. galaxy note 2) when it has a micro sd slot why are you waiting for the SAME device when u can get the 16gb and get as many micro sd cards as you need…u pay MORE $ for “larger”hardware when the same memory capacity can be sought for less…..pause…..

The problem lies with being cost effective. A LOT of people don’t have truly unlimited data plans, heck some people rock t-mo’s 200mb with overages plans. This phone will only work great for those w/ unlimited data. Some people have more than 16gbs of data in pictures or music standalone even more so being able to have access to the cloud everywhere is impossible. 16gbs isn’t much after adding all possible things like apps and their caches. Whats a hard drive going to do when you would need to have access to a computer to use it?

mikkej2k

Hopefully , T-Mobile will take advantage of this opportunity and develop wi-fi calling into an app available in Google Play , Itunes , Windows app store , etc.

If their strategy is to invite people to bring their own device , then T-Mobile should do everything possible to encourage new customers to come over.

Tuan

Tmobile should just release a wifi calling app ala for the G2 and G2x for the Nexus, Iphone, and maybe the 920 in the App/Play store.

Its part of Tmobile’s appeal to lure in customers with unlocked phones, and the wifi calling feature is what sets Tmobile apart from the other carriers.

The app may not be as robust as one caked into the OS but nonetheless it could be used as a selling point.

Just in case anyone’s wondering, there ARE a couple workarounds for this:

1) You can switch to Google Voice and use GrooVe IP (and Android app) which will let you use Google Voice over WiFi. This is what I’ll probably do.

2) You can do pretty much the same with Skype, but Skype charges money ($3 per month) for calls. There’s also Vontage, not sure on pricing.

3) You can buy the Nexus 4 and hope the development community will be able to port WiFi Calling.

It’s important to understand that the WiFi Calling app has changed dramatically over the years, including switching vendors twice. The current version leverages the existing SIP functionality in Ice Cream Sandwich (for performance) and uses 3rd party sauce for SMS and MMS. Earlier Gingerbread versions looked like a standalone app.

The app changes again in Jelly Bean. I’m told that the JB version uses a generic method for SMS and MMS and a version may be included in CyanogenMod 10.

I suspect there are technical issues that prevent T-Mobile from putting WiFi Calling in Google Play. Last I checked WiFi calling apps were specific to each device.

T-Mobile has a powerful incentive to get WiFi calling on every phone possible, every WiFi call saves T-Mobile money.

BTW, If you’re interested in modding you should probably go Samsung (which means the S3). Samsung supports the dev community to a much greater extent than the other vendors.

vrm

There is a lot of VOIP s/w (free and commercial) such as grooveIP, talkatone, sparephone etc which allow calling over wifi. Using google voice and talk, you can call anywhere and even receive calls over wifi.

tech916

Instead of WIFI Calling I use Talkatone Uses data not minutes

Select a phone:(optional)

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- Any -

1

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Minutes Unlimited

Messages: 500

Data

Select the amount of total data you need for the entire plan.

For example, if you need 2 lines with 1 GB of data each, you would select 2 GB of data with the data slider below.

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